ready fer yer micro-chip?

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http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/news/story.html?id=dc7c28fa-41ac-4da\

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Aliens soon to be tagged at border

MICROCHIPS: Devices to track entries and exits into the U.S.

 

John Bermingham

The Province

 

July 31, 2005

 

Hundreds of thousands of B.C. residents may have to carry a microchip the next

time they enter the U.S.

On Thursday, the two busiest B.C. border crossings will begin issuing

non-citizens of Canada and the U.S. an electronic chip to record when they leave

Canada and when they return. Canada Customs will help the U.S. scan re-entries

into Canada and return the tags to the Americans.

 

Customs spokeswoman Maria Iadinardi said Canada has no plans to participate in

the program beyond that, and that Canada won't set up a similar system of its

own. Civil liberties groups are concerned about privacy issues surrounding the

chips and a U.S. lawyer warns that the program could soon expand beyond

residents to include Canadian citizens.

 

The electronic tags are part of a pilot project at the Peace Arch and Pacific

Highway border crossings that will run until March. Mike Milne, the U.S. Customs

and Border Protection spokesman for Washington state, said it's about finding

the best way of tracking when a visitor leaves the U.S.

 

" As people come into the United States on temporary visas, we create the

record, " Milne told The Province on Friday. " As they leave, we'll have a good

record, identifying that person as having left. " The chip program is

part of the US-VISIT border-security program under the Department of Homeland

Security. Milne says one in 20 B.C. visitors to the U.S. will be targeted. The

microchips will be inserted into their I-94 visas, or placed on car dashboards

so they can be scanned. Milne also says there will be no tracking of visitors

inside the U.S. But Micheal Vonn, speaking for the B.C. Civil Liberties

Association, isn't so sure.

 

" We're at least skeptical that this is all about monitoring, " Vonn says. " The

potential [is] for abuse of this kind of technology. " Vonn notes that residents

at U.S. border-crossings have their licence plates photographed when entering

and leaving the U.S. " So what is it they don't know about you, in terms of your

entries and exits? " she asks. Vonn also argues that readers inside the U.S., at

public or secret locations, could track a B.C. visitor's movements.

 

" You can scan a group at a political demonstration, you can scan a group at a

mosque, " she says. In the U.S., the American Civil Liberties Union and Muslim

groups both oppose the tagging program. Bellingham immigration lawyer Greg Boos

says he's been told at briefing sessions that U.S. border officials eventually

want to monitor Canadian citizens -- possibly by tapping into the microchips

inside Canadian passports so they can scan them on entry and exit. Boos says the

US-VISIT system is slated to cost $14 billion US and may not catch terrorists.

B.C. residents pay $6 US per person for an I-94 visa, but Boos says that could

rise to $50 in order to recoup the massive startup costs.

 

The US-VISIT program already fingerprints and photographs B.C. residents

visiting the U.S. and stores the information. Upon entering and leaving the

U.S., visitors have their left and right index fingers scanned and their face

photographed -- a system used at the Blaine, Point Roberts, Sumas and Lynden

crossings. U.S. customs offices at Vancouver International Airport and at

cruise-ship terminals at Canada Place, Ballantyne Pier and Victoria are also

part of US-VISIT.

 

jbermingham

© The Vancouver Province 2005

 

 

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face

– foreverâ€

-George Orwell